There are so many places in the bible that illustrate how people constructed things...like stacks of stones...or altars...or stories when they wanted to remember how God's faithfulness intersected their lives. And many peoples' lives were changed for the better because of the testimony of how God provided, protected, and paved the way for His kids...in Biblical times as well as modern times.
I have led a number of teams of high school kids into mission fields over the last 10 years or so. And I should have been recounting all those things here...as a way to remember all the things that God provided through each different trip... But it wasn't until going to El Salvador for the first time that I felt that great need to recount the story...my story...and God's story...in a way that would testify to God's goodness...and His faithfulness!! Constructing a way to remember His faithfulness.
A few years ago, I chose to use my abandoned blog to do just that...create a space to remember. I'm excited to add to those stories from El Salvador...with new story from closer to home!
Recently, I had a great opportunity to take a team to Dallas to do some incredible mission and ministry work. I wanted to journal the story out. Why? Because the things that God did along the way are things that I NEVER want to forget.
In late May, a ministry friend of mine in Dallas began posting opportunities for people to join his ministry by helping to fund a large smoker/grill. He does a lot of homeless ministry and generally that includes food of some sort before they minister to their spiritual needs. I believe wholly in the work that God does through Darell and the multiple teams he works with in Dallas. And I knew that if God were leading him into that grill...that some big and mighty things would be happening as a result of getting the grill up and running!
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| Darell, Jene, and Roy and the big, big grill!! |
Of course I supported the project financially because God has blessed me a way that allows me to do that. I could have let it go right there...BUT GOD...kept bringing it to my mind. I don't share a ton of things on my FB platform, but I felt compelled to share his fundraiser. A few people from our tiny community donated...I shared the post with young people that had worked with him on our various YG trips to Dallas since we first went in 2017. A few more donations. I continued to follow the fundraiser from afar and prayed for him consistently, that God would provide the funds necessary to get the grill purchased. The progress was slow...and I remember thinking that maybe God was holding the progress up for some reason. But God continued to draw me into the project...through prayer...but also through some personal texts and another FB share as he got within several hundred dollars.
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| our friend Darell in the left corner as he interacts with our team |
Darell was so touched by the involvement and support that came out of our community that he reached out several times in gratitude. He told me that we would be sure to use the grill the next time our YG went down to Dallas for another mission trip. BUT because I knew that we wouldn't make it there until 2027, I mentioned that I was wondering about a short weekend trip in August (literally the only weekend that did not have some school activity scheduled already)...That was all he needed to start planning details...and we began to pray over the possibilities.
He decided on 3 separate ministry projects on 3 days to wash the feet of the homeless people and share the love of Jesus through touch, food (on the grill of course), new shoes and socks, and prayer... and we would work together to get the job done with existing ministries in the area.
Our team of 15 left in 3 vehicles from 2 different locations, and picked up one member from college in Edmund OK. Roy and Jene are long time humanity missionaries that go to Mexico to build houses annually. They also have a heart for serving and cooking...so I knew that they would be a blessing to our team. Jaylen and Devin have been on multiple mission trips with me in the past. They have huge hearts for serving...And they love Darell and South Dallas.
We were very thankful that all of them were led to put their lives on hold for the weekend to help us.
The rest of us headed out after our 6 girls got done with a 6 am volley ball practice. Their coach was gracious and moved practice up so that we could get out of town in time to get to our first ministry that night.
Backing up a minute to note a few God touches before we even started...As Darell and I were talking about the trip two weeks prior, he was telling me about how his vision started for this ministry...He had been given 10 pallets of new, brand name shoes in March from another ministry...He felt led to use those shoes in conjunction with feeding people from the grill. He envisioned washing their feet, trimming their nails, and then putting on shoes...and new socks, though he didn't have any of those. He recalls not even praying for socks, but just wondering how he might get some socks to distribute too. A few days after the vision was cast, he had a random phone call asking if he ever accepted donations that weren't monetary..."Of course, what do you have??"
2000 pair of socks...Bomba socks...God's provision before there was even a prayer!! And if you don't know about Bomba socks...they are THE best socks in the world...and when you buy a pair, they donate a pair. This weekend was the SECOND time in 6 months that I had seen this ministry in action!! I'm a BOMBA sock girl for life now!! Seriously, what is better than partnering in ministry just by buying a pair of socks???
In the meantime, someone had discouraged him from doing any nail trimming due to the number of diabetics on the streets. As he was relaying this to me in my dining room...we both became acutely aware that I was trained to do nail care...and just like that, nail trimming returned to the plan.
But with projected numbers close to 500 pairs of feet, I knew that I couldn't do it alone...I prayed and asked around and prayed some more. This little lady above, had randomly liked one of my posts...but unbeknownst to me...she had also been praying a different prayer...one asking God to use her in a way that would allow her to grow and serve differently than she was doing...As I tried to find someone to help, God just continued to bring Kassadee to my heart...so I reached out on FB as I didn't have her phone number...starting my text with "I have a really weird question for you..."
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| These two guys behind me didn't take their eyes off his feet the whole time I worked..The guy next to him said "GIRL, you doing my toes next cause you gooooodd. You know whatch you doin!" |
She was able to trade some shifts with a coworker...which was a huge blessing to our team!! It turned out that training my daughter to trim nails (which was MY plan--thankfully not God's) was not even going to be possible due to the condition of the nails we came across. I couldn't have survived without the help of Kassadee!! Many of those nails were ROUGH...some untouched for over a year...They had to have been so painful, but most of the people just blew us off saying they were fine, really. And a seemingly little thing like trimming some nails, became a HUGE blessing to those that needed that service!!
SOOO, back to the trip...All the guys left earlier Friday to get down to Dallas to help Darell get shoes and socks loaded into a You-haul trailer and the grill moved to Dallas International Street Church, where our first ministry would happen. We headed out with the intention of eating lunch in Edmund and picking our college freshman up after he finished work at 12:30...My friend Sara, whom had offered to help me get kids down to Dallas, drives LOTS of dirt roads. And it is a 3 hour trip from my house to Edmund...with no dirt roads. As we got in our cars after lunch, she radioed me on our walkie talkie that she had a tire sensor light come on...She zipped into a gas station and could hear air blowing out of her tire.
While she could have hit something on the paved roads near Edmund, I find it highly unlikely. You will NEVER convince me that God didn't hold his thumb on that air leak until we got off the interstate, out of traffic, and in an area that had 3 tire shops. The third place she went was able to get her tire fixed within an hour so she could hit the road!! God definitely answered our prayer for no incidents or accidents!
It was good to meet our team at our house in South Dallas for a quick minute before heading out to DISC....
Because when we got to the street church, we were running to get things ready to go!!
The kids hauled in shoes and socks and supplies...
And set them up in a salon style formation like the one above. Even though Sara had to drive through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, they were able to get to the street church just in time for the service to start! I'm so thankful that God answered our Friday afternoon prayers for a repaired tire in a timeframe that would allow them to be part of the first ministry!! That feels pretty miraculous too, looking back!!
We enjoyed being a part of the Street church service, and listened to a message on how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. If there was any fear in the hearts of this team, they didn't show it. They went to work washing feet, anointing their calloused feet with oil, exchanging old shoes for new ones...all the while talking with them, laughing with them, praying for them, and showing the love of Jesus.
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| Look long at these photos...there are so many things being told here! |
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| They were sooo proud of their clean feet and new shoes!! So many of them were so grateful for comfortable shoes!! |
These scenes from the photos above literally took my breath away more than once. God provided all the supplies needed for the weekend through various places. On Thursday before we started Friday, He delivered the rest of the supplies through a generous outside donor!! Additionally, I had ordered some nail clippers and supplies that arrived the day before we left...I happened to ask our materials manager at work on Thursday (on a "whim") if she happened to have any old nail clippers laying in her pile of stuff in the basement....She came right over with 3 brand new, stainless steel, heavy duty German made nail clippers....that she had "randomly" ordered a few weeks before for the hospital....we rarely EVER use a pair of nail clippers there, let alone THREE pair...so once again, you will NEVER convince me that God didn't prompt her to order them for this trip...they saved our bacon, and the palms of our hands, as they were MUCH nicer than the ones I had gotten from Amazon!!
The next morning we were out of the house by 6:45 and took our picture in front of the beautiful sunrise!!
We set up tents...
Started the grill back up...
Prayed as one GIANT team of helpers..
Served some burgers...yes, at 7:30 in the morning.
Our friend Danielle took the ladies down the street to talk with people.
We watched people walk by with suitcases, wagons, shopping carts, and backpacks to get in the line that would feed their bellies, and get them access to new shoes. I believe we served around 300 people that morning...and 600-700 people over the course of the weekend.
The interstates were the backdrop for our shoe store...which felt amazingly odd.
The foot washing and trimming worked similar to the night before.
One of the coolest things to me...was how we showed up...met other members of other teams...and served together...pretty seamlessly! It was so amazing, to watch each team member work in their giftings...feeding people, organizing people, helping people, searching for supplies and meeting needs not only for the homeless, but also for the other team members. I remember at one point feeling very strongly about our experience being exactly what Jesus intended the capital C Church to look like...A seamless operation of all different people with all different passions and skills to do the work that He had ordained for us to do...together. There was no sassing, no undermining, no bickering, no laziness...there was simply people doing what needed to be done to do God's will.
THIS day...we had EXACTLY enough food to feed EXACTLY the amount of people desiring it...We saw time and time again, how the exact size needed in the shoes would come through at exactly the right time, even if the workers thought the shoe size had been gone for 30 minutes already!! God stretched the food and the shoes in a way to care for these people...some of them His kids already, and some who got a seed planted last weekend!!
I KNOW that there were specific people that God was providing for that day in a miraculous way...not everyone got the shoe size that they needed...but there were handfuls of them that God multiplied our stock for!! I wish that we had been privvy to His perspective on those miracles!!
Because we had intended to eat burgers again on the street.....and we only had enough for the people...the kids got to choose lunch...Raisin Cains was the spot. And because I had to run some food over to Darell's after lunch...we scooted kids around to different vehicles so the others could go back to the house and clean up and rest. It turned out, that ONE vehicle...with older guys, young men and one senior girl...decided to go get ice cream...except that they forgot they had the house keys...So when I got back to the house...I was surprised to find the other vehicle that had stopped at a grocery store to get water bottles and ice sitting in the heat outside the house...irritated that the keys were in the other car. We were calling everyone in the missing car, getting a little worried about why they weren't back...and why they weren't answering...Mylee finally answered...and to my question about where they were...she giggled and said they had stopped for ice cream. And not to be neglected...the other kids decided that they should also go for ice cream...which we did. That trip, ending up on a one way street the wrong way on a set of trolley tracks, lack of utilizable parking, narrowly missing piles of bricks lost on the interstate (after narrowly making our exit due to crazy lane additions) made for lots of laughter, funny memories, and a shout out to God for keeping us safe all the while!! But the ice cream WAS worth it!
The kids and a few adults got some naps in to recover from the late night, early morning, and hard work!!
Saturday evening we got to enjoy company of other teammates at Darell's new home while his friend smoked ribs and chicken on the grill with lots of sides!! Another twist to our whole story, is that approximately 2 1/2 weeks before our trip down...Darell and his wife Kris's house had a gas leak, which caught fire and burned--leaving them with nothing left. Darell and Kris were convinced that moving forward with the trip to our town that he had planned, as well as the foot washing ministry outreach was the best thing to do. God MIRACULOUSLY kept their family safe through the fire, saved the most important memoirs from the fire, and provided them a new home in 10 days that was an upgrade for them...They got moved in and furniture the week that we arrived!! Satan would have loved to prevent the weekend from happening!! Which also convinced us all, that something to advance the Kingdom of God was going to be taking place!!
Sunday morning was much the same...leaving the house around 6:45...
Unloading, sorting shoes, and setting up an organized way to find them quickly...
And lining up to care for the feet of those that we had never met and will likely never see again.
This morning was my favorite...
The morning weather was beautiful with a nice breeze...
Worship music was being played both live, and radio versions over a loudspeaker...
The kids were so much bolder with people...asking them spiritual things and praying in a way that would bring deep emotional connection.
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| We saw many people that were missing toes (in this case, ALL of his toes) secondary to frost bite!! |
Again we saw God working missing shoe size miracles to those people that He chose to provide a miracle for.
Again, as I would look up and around while I worked or cleaned my clippers...I would have such a rush of emotions...So many things that ONLY God could have orchestrated...So many needs that were met during our time there. People were lifted up...encouraged...educated....touched in a way that neither demanded anything of them, nor caused them pain--but just a kind and loving touch of another human being...stomachs were fed good food...jokes were exchanged...Shame was cast away. People were seen. And heard. And loved. And when one can recognize God working in their circumstances...it can render one speechless and emotionally vulnerable.
Some of us learned to love in a different way. Some of us served in ways that we would have never dreamt of. Many of us practiced being bold in prayer and using our mouths for the glory of God.
All of us got to participate in something that had been ordained by the Lord...something that was soooo much bigger than ourselves. Our mouths spoke His truths...Our hearts were touched time and again by harsh realities that we know very little about. It was very obvious as we shared thoughts and stories...that God absolutely went before us in this weekend...He walked right beside us throughout the 3 days...
And now we continue to trust God for the fruit to come out of our work...both in the lives of those who served...and those who were served.
I will always ask why God chose to include our YG and our community to work together to serve the unseen in Dallas Texas this summer. But I am certainly humbled and glad that He did. He has showed us what He is capable of when people say yes to crazy ideas. He also showed us what happens when His people pray and seek to serve as Jesus served. Until the next time....
Remember...
God loves YOU too!!
John 13:12-17
After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
